Re: Advice re SEN Statement

[Guest guest]

We are on our 3rd tribunal now - nice job for us over the Xmas

period...........

My advice is to concentrate primarily on your child's needs - these

should be named at part 2 of the statement

Everything hangs on the needs. If you get the need properly

described then it follows that the appropriate provision to meet the

need should be named at part 3 of the statement. Dont expect either

needs or provision to be recorded appropriately by the LA - they

will be focussing all their efforts on minimising your child's needs

so that the provision (and therefore the amount of money it will

cost) can be minimised.

However, the tribunal are likely to see this differently - if needs

are adequately described but provision to meet the needs is not

appropriately described then the tribunal can help you. BUT you

have to make your case - they can only help you if you have done the

groundwork by making sure needs are accurately described.

If you have had a statutory assessment (which you will have if you

have got to this stage) then there will be reports from various

professionals (Ed Psych, SaLT, Teachers, others as appropriate) that

should describe your child's needs.

Go through each report with a fine toothcomb and highlight what is

said about needs.

Then look at the provision side - go through the professionals'

reports again (NOT the proposed statement) and look at what the

professionals say about provision in their individual reports. You

then need to decide whether the provision that is described will

adequately meet your child's needs. Dont rely on anyone else - you

know your child - what will work? Is it enough?

If you disagree with the provision specified by the professionals in

their reports then you are into a different ballgame as you will

need your own independent professional reports in order to challenge

the provision at tribunal. The same applies if you disagree with

what the professionals have said about needs.

If you agree that the provision specified by the professionals will

adequately meet your child's needs then your objective in the

meeting with the LA is to get that provision into the proposed

statement. The way to get it in is to match it to the

need...................which is why the description of the need is

so important.

The way to get the need adequately described is to use what the

professionals have said (as long as you are happy with it - if not,

as said before, you will need your own independent reports from

professionals). Eg if your SaLT report says that your child needs

10 hours per half term SaLT and the LA havent put this into the

proposed statement then your objective is to highlight that the LA

is not including what its own professionals have said. Ask them to

explain why they arent following the advice of the professionals and

get it minuted (excellent ammo for tribunal).

The LA will have great difficulty at a tribunal explaining to the

panel why they are not including the advice of their own

professionals in the statement.

It is all about need and provision - primarily need as that defines

provision. That is what you need to keep focused on.

Be calm, be reasonable (even when it ties you in knots), take time

out to confer privately if you need it - above all, do your homework

and be sure of the description of needs that you want to see in the

statement.

Hope that helps - good luck

Zoe

>

>

>

> Hi everyone

>

> Sorry to go off topic but was hoping there are some experienced

parents out there who could offer me some advice!

>

> I'm meeting with the local authority tomorrow to discuss my son's

Proposed Statement, which doesn't include anything I asked for and

really not much over what every NT child would get as standard -

it's pretty shocking but I'm guessing they try to get away with as

little as possible. They didn't even include the professionals'

recommendations. I've been fighting with the local authority over

speech therapy for a long time and they are really difficult so I'm

not really expecting much and our SEN advisor already told me I'd

have to go to tribunal. Still, I'd like to feel more prepared than

I do at the moment and I was wondering if anyone who's been through

this already had any advice or tips for me to try to get as much

included in the statement as possible?

>

> Any help is appreciated!

> Thanks

>

> _________________________________________________________________

> Are you a PC?  Upload your PC story and show the world

> http://clk.atdmt.com/UKM/go/122465942/direct/01/

>